Steam-electric car heater



May 16, 1933. R. J. PARSONS STEAMELECTRIC CAR HEATER Filed April 28, 1929 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR ROBERT J. PARSONS BY 4%. 6mm ATTORNEY May 16, 1933. PARSONS 1,909,593

STEAM-ELECTRIC CAR HEATER Filed April 26, 1929 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 FIG.2

FIG.3

INVENTOR ROBE RT J. PARSONS ATTORNEY Patented May 16, 1933 PATENT FFECE I ROBERT-J. PARSONS, OF SCHENEC'I'ADY, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO CONSOLIDATED CAR-HEATING COMPANY,'INC., OF ALBANY, NEW YORK, A CORPORATION OF NEW yoax Application filed April 26,

- For a detailed description of the present form of myiinvention, reference may be had to the following specification and to the accompanying drawings forming a part thereof, wherein Fig. 1 shows a heater unit embodying my invention and Fig. 2 shows a grouping of similar units.

Fig. 3 is a detail.

My invention relates to a car heater operable either by steam or by electricity and employed for cars which, at times, are included in trains drawn by steam locomotives, and so having steam available as the heating'agency, but, at other times, are in trains propelled by electric locomotives when electricity is the heating agency available. My purpose is to have one heater installer in the carwith but a single heat radiating surface which may receive its heat from either one of the two heating agencies.

Turning to Fig. 1 of the drawings, A, B, C and D represent steam pipes, connected across at their ends by headers E and F. These headers also represent the means for introducing steam into the said pipes at one end and withdrawing of water therefrom at the other end, this water being the residuum from the steam after the heat has been withdrawn from it by radiation from the outside surface of the pipes. However the steam may enter and the water be withdrawn at any other suitable point in the pipe system. From the outside surface of said pipe system the heat is to be radiated into the car whether the agency creating that heat be steam or electricity. Outside of each header and effectively partitioned from its interior space is formed a tube box 2 which is provided with a removable cover plate, that plate being shown in place at the right hand box of Fig. 1 and screwed down, but is not in place at the left hand box of said figure. Through the several steam pipes A,

B, C, D, and inside thereof, extend metal tubes 3, 4, 5 and 6 which are concentric with, but longer than, the steam pipes, so as to pass transversely across the interior of hea eers E and F and thence into the tube boxes 2 at either end. When these tubes pass out of STEAM-ELECTRIC CAR HEATER 1929. Seria1 No. 358,384.

the steam headers into the tube boxes a steam tight joint is provided. The tubes are thus ca Tied by the wall of the tube boxes and secured longitudinally by nuts K in the tube box which is open'to the atmosphere. The tubes may assume a spiral form between their ends as indicated in Fig. 2. Through each of the tubes BXLGHClS an electric resistor element, acting as a heater, which reaches from a tube box 2 at one end to a corresponding tube box 2 at the opposite end of the heater. In these tube boxes the usual electrical connection may be made with electrical supply conductors.

2 shows how heaters like those shown in Fig. 1 may be grouped and arranged for practical service in a car. Here pipes A and B have at their outer ends headers E and F, each provided with a corresponding tube box 2. Each pipe has a series of indiridual coupler-sleeves l0 dividing it into sections. At the center ofthe pipes the two pipes B and C have headers G and H, while at both ends the pipes C and D have these headers M and L tube boxes-2. This arrangement puts in series a set of heater units on each side of the center, and the two sets are in branching relation to each other with respect to a single set of inlet and outlet steam pipes X and Y at the center.

The aforesaid couplers have each a sleeve 10 joining the adjacent pipe ends and enclosing a steam space which conducts the steam from one pipe section to the next, just as the headers form a steam connection between adjacent parallel pipes. In each coupler-sleeve 1O is'a tube box 2 which lies inside of the coupler-sleeve, whereas the tube boxes 2 at the ends lie outside of the steam headers E, F,,Gr and H. But in any case the tube boxes, within which are the electrical connections, are eii'ectively partitioned olf from the space in the headers or sleeves 10 that form the steam connection between consecutive steam pipes, while the tubes carrying the electric heater resistor pass through the steam space and enter the tube boxes.

By this means, it will be manifest, that the outside surface of the steam pipes-forms a single radiating surface for delivering heat to the interior of the car but that behind that single radiating suriace are two distinct agencies for heating it, one agency being steam and the other electricity. Moreover 5 the electrical heating means are inside of the steam heating means. Thereby a casual observer would see only an ordinary steam heating system and only by close examination would know that it was equally an electric heating system. When there is no steam in the pipes, the steam locomotive being detached from the train and replaced by electric propelling means, then the electrical resistors in the tubes will be'connected to u the source of electrical supply by well known means. These resistors, which are insulated electrically from the tubes enclosing them will radiate their heat to the tubes which will, in turn, radiate heat to the steam pipes h and the pipes will radiate it to the air in the car just as they would do if the heat were supplied to them by steam. The tube boxes between succeeding sections of tube will be accessible, by means of their removable cova ers outside of the steam pipes, whereby the sat rical connections between succeeding resistors in the tubes can be established independently of the steam pipes and their steam connections. is What Iclaim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is: I 11 1 steam electric heater of the character described comprising a steam pipe having an Q3 internal steam space and an exposed heat radiating surface, an electric heater extended through said steam space and out of contact with thewall of said pipe, so that either steam or electricit may be selectively employed to is heat radiating surface said electric heater being supported independently of said pi e.

2 A steam-electric car heater arranged to radiate heat 'from its external surface coma? prising a steam ,pipe in connected sections, means by which steam may be introduced into said ipe section's and internal electricall h tubes within said pipes but se arate t retra n by the steam space, so t at the a swan; mypass through the pipe independhtl [di the said tl bes. l .3. ste'am elect'ric carheater comprising alieat-r'adiating steam pipe formed in sectl'ons,' internal electrically-heated tubes also in sections, couplers for the said pipes, and

couplrsffor the tube sections ac'cesslble outsideof the steam couplers. t 4. A steam-electric car heater comprising a heat 'radiatiii pipe formed in sec- 5% tibns, an electrically heated tube inside of s'aidpipe, and a coupler having two separate compartments, one a doe d, compartment communicating ith two a jacent pipe sections (and the ot er an open compartment N do jinicating with two adjacent tube 5. A steam-electric car heater comprising an external steam pipe, a parallel internal tube containing an electrical heating resistor and spaced from the steam pipe, and a coupler containing two separate compartments one steam-tight and connecting adjoining pipe sections and the other at atmospheric pressure and connecting adjoining tube sections.

6. A coupler for a steam-electric car heater containing two compartments separated-by a wall, one of said compartments having means for supporting steam pipes and the other compartment having means located in said separating wall for supporting electrically heated tu es.

Signed at Albany, county of Albany, State of New York, this 24th day of A ril, 1929.

ROBERT J. P RSONS.

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